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Thanks! I will move the rock a little to the left and see how it looks.

Cycle question: I don't add any ammonia until the ammonia reads 0, right? I am unclear because the sticky seems to say that you don't but also says to add 1/2 dose when nitrites show up. I have not added any ammonia since the first dose.

Yes, only re-dose ammonia when you have a zero reading. You should try to take the readings at the same time each day and only dose once per day (and only if you need to).

Yes, when nitrites start to rise you should be cutting your ammonia doses to half that of before. So if you were dosing to 4ppm initially, cut it back to 2ppm during the nitrite phase. I forgot to do this on my last fishless cycle and the nitrites peaked off the charts and stayed high for two weeks. It wasn't until I realised that I'd been overdosing ammonia and not halfing the dose that the cycle progressed. When I dropped it, the nitrites dropped and nitrates then peaked.

Quick cycle update: ammo dropped to 0 today!! Nitrates are high so I dosed ammonia to 2ppm. I am assuming I just keep dosing to 2ppm everytime the ammo drops to 0 until I am ready to stock the tank, correct? How about water changes after it's cycled if I don't stock right away?

Quick cycle update: ammo dropped to 0 today!! Nitrates are high so I dosed ammonia to 2ppm. I am assuming I just keep dosing to 2ppm everytime the ammo drops to 0 until I am ready to stock the tank, correct? How about water changes after it's cycled if I don't stock right away?

Water changes only start after adding fish - once a week - and also if you get a reading for ammonia which can happen after adding new fish. Because you are cycling first, you will be able to add more fish to start off with because the bacteria are already there to handle the fish's ammonia - any more fish after that it's recommended to check ammonia to make sure that more bacteria have grown to handle the additional fish waste.

To clarify... nitrate levels don't matter until I stock the tank? I am thinking that the nitrate levels may get CRAZY high if I can't stock right away and have to keep feeding the BB. Should I worry about that?

I know that I need to do a big enough water change (or multiple changes) just before stocking to get the nitrates as low as possible.